More than 100 tourists have contracted norovirus after eating at a Green Island seafood restaurant off the coast of Taitung, Taiwan. According to Taiwanese health officials, the common link is tainted raw oysters from South Korea.

Image/CDC

According to the epidemiological investigation, 120 people had eaten raw oysters at the seafood restaurant. 102 tourists in six tour groups have displayed the symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea. More than six dozen people required hospitalization for their illness.

The Taiwan Food and Drug Administration report norovirus in both oyster and patient samples from the outbreak.

Norovirus is a highly contagious viral illness that often goes by other names, such as viral gastroenteritis, stomach flu, and food poisoning.

The symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. Sometimes people additionally have a low-grade fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, and a general sense of tiredness. The illness often begins suddenly, and the infected person may feel very sick. In most people, the illness is self-limiting with symptoms lasting for about 1 or 2 days. In general, children experience more vomiting than adults do.

Norovirus is spread person to person particularly in crowded, closed places. Norovirus is typically spread through contaminated food and water, touching surfaces or objects contaminated with norovirus and then putting your hand or fingers in your mouth and close contact with someone who is vomiting or has diarrhea.